Five Tips for looking after your stove

1. Give your stove a good internal clean from time to time. Firstly, drop down the baffle plate and brush off any ash or debris then rake out the grate and empty the ash pan. Brush the grate and firebox liners with a hand brush or, for the best finish, use a vacuum brush attachment (make sure the stove is cold!). Finally, wipe the glass with household glass cleaner or ceramic hob cleaner and buff off.

2. Load logs into your stove carefully – use gloves to position one or two chunky logs within the firebox for the best flame picture and combustion.

3. Use the airwash air control to keep the stove glass as clear as possible when burning wood. Good dry logs should require little or no primary (under grate) air, and will burn very well with the airwash (secondary) air supply only. Single air control stoves will do this automatically, by proportioning the air correctly on the wood setting.

4. Use the 'top down' method to light your stove to reduce the amount of smoke, and keep the glass of your stove cleaner during ignition. Put two small diameter logs on the grate of the stove, two further logs crossed over the first pair, followed by a firelighter and a ‘jenga-style’ criss-cross crib of kindling on top. The wood must be fully dry, but once the fire lights, it should burn down to the base logs, and be ready for the next fuel load with little intervention.

5. Flamers firelighters are ideal to use as they are natural firelighters instead of the white chemical ones – they do not smell, produce much less soot and smoke, and are far more likely to light the fire successfully using just one.